Thermodynamic Approaches for Sustainable Uses of Resources and Their Role in Economic Models

Dear Colleagues,

In environmental studies, the compartmentalization of the biosphere is commonly used to define the environmental matrix, within which natural resources (e.g., water, soil, mineral and fossil deposits) are embedded, and which simultaneously receives the flows of waste and by-products generated by societal metabolism. The imbalance between the extraction of resources from the biosphere and the capacity of ecological systems to absorb the resulting waste calls for new approaches capable of linking environmental stewardship with economically viable models. This challenge is being further exacerbated by prevailing economic growth patterns, often decoupled from shared biophysical reference frameworks, and by the finite nature of natural resources, which imposes limits on their continued exploitation.

Economic processes involve the transformation of resources into goods and services. However, such transformations require specific combinations of production factors across time and space, including not only capital, labour, and land, but also the high entropy and high energy density of natural resources. Conventional economic models tend to assign value to resources in their highly organized, low-entropy states, while inadequately accounting for the loss of this organization throughout the economic process. As a result, they often overlook the irreversible increase in entropy embodied in waste and dissipated heat. Although matter can be partially recycled, such processes require additional energy inputs and remain thermo-dynamically constrained, highlighting the limits to circularity. The work of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1971) was instrumental in exposing these shortcomings by grounding economic analysis in the laws of thermodynamics. Advances in the thermodynamics of open systems, particularly under non-equilibrium and irreversible conditions, have reinforced a bioeconomic perspective in which economic and ecological systems are understood as structurally isomorph: both are open, evolving systems dependent on continuous flows of energy, matter, and information. This perspective provides a foundation for integrating thermodynamic constraints into economic modeling and sustainability analysis.

This Special Issue invites contributions addressing the rational use of natural and anthropogenic resources at the interface between ecological and economic systems, adopting life cycle and systems perspectives. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Material Flow Analysis (MFA), (bio)energetics, Life Cycle Costing (LCC), and externalities monetization. We welcome contributions grounded in thermodynamic and biophysical approaches, e.g., energy analysis applied to economic systems, Energy Return on Investment (EROI), socio-metabolic analysis, biophysical economics, ecological macroeconomics, and stock-flow (and funds/services) consistent models with energy and material constraints. Submissions addressing circular economy strategies under thermodynamic limits, industrial symbiosis, urban metabolism, and resource efficiency are welcome, especially where limits to recyclability are explicitly considered. Contributions exploring the role of information, digitalization, and data-driven systems in shaping resource use, as well as advances in entropy accounting and quantification methodologies, are also encouraged.

The Special Issue welcomes theoretical contributions, methodological developments, review papers, and empirical case studies from interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives. It aims to create a collection of papers on the above mentioned aspects, with the goal of building a community of authors and readers to develop new ideas and research directions aimed at the creation of a multidisciplinary approach benefiting from multi-sectoral contributions for the appropriate use of resources from a sustainability perspective.

Prof. Dr. Bernardo Ruggeri
Dr. Carlos Enrique Gomez Camacho
Guest Editors

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• thermodynamic: energy and exergy analysis
• ecological and economic approaches
• life cycle assessment (LCA) of resources cycles
• open systems evolution perspectives
• material flow analysis (MFA)
• (bio)energetics
• life cycle costing (LCC)
• EROI
• socio-metabolic modelling (SMM)